Employers are bracing for potential challenges as Ottawa’s latest immigration policy aims to slow population growth over the next three years.

In October, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan would focus on sustainably managing Canada’s population growth.

The announcement includes controlled targets for temporary and permanent residents, a move expected to affect industries that rely heavily on foreign labor, such as pork processing and transportation.

Manitoba Pork Council CEO Cam Dahl told the Sun government it should consider labor demand in rural areas, which differs greatly from Canada’s largest urban centers.

“Policies that may work in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver don’t necessarily work for Neepawa, Brandon and rural Manitoba,” Dahl said in an interview. “The issues in these large urban areas are very different from those we face here in Manitoba. We therefore believe that the policy should not apply uniformly in all regions. We advocate for some flexibility in federal immigration policies that would allow Manitoba to maintain the current success of the Provincial Nominee Program.

The policy, he said, would not only affect Maple Leaf in Brandon and HyLife in Neepawa, because “new Canadians are a crucial part of our workforce,” from the farms and then through transportation and processing, “they are essential to our operations at every stage, from production to processing.

Dahl explained that the industry doesn’t rely heavily on the temporary foreign worker program because most of the new Canadians the companies attract are employed full-time and are on the path to citizenship.

“Most of the skilled workers who come to work in Manitoba’s pork industry do so through the highly successful Provincial Nominee Program,” he said. “This ensures that new Canadians not only have jobs, but also access to housing, services and community supports. For example, new Filipino workers arriving in Neepawa can count on an established community, which is not the case in other regions of Canada.

He added that the council recognized the need to resolve some policy issues, but urged the federal government to avoid cutting programs like the Provincial Nominee Program.

“Not all regions of Canada are the same and we hope that rural areas like Manitoba will be treated differently than Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. At this point, I am cautiously optimistic that the program will remain intact.”

Regarding advocacy, Dahl said the council actively engages with the federal and provincial governments, adding that the provincial government has shown “strong support for our position.” We have not yet received a direct response from the federal minister, but we hope for a productive dialogue soon.

Although the federal government has indicated it will protect certain aspects of the food industry from new restrictions on foreign workers, Maple Leaf Foods – a major employer in Brandon – remains cautious about the impact the changes could still have on recruitment and retention efforts.

The company’s spokesperson told The Sun it was closely monitoring the government’s recent announcement to reduce immigration targets for the next three years.

“We are awaiting further details to determine the impact this will have on our operations,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Foreign workers play an important role in the success of Maple Leaf Foods. »

Maple Leaf Foods, which operates plants in Brandon and Winnipeg, noted that a new federal directive to reduce the validity of work permits will impact its workers.

“Plans to reduce the validity of work permits from two years to one year will impact the ability of workers to apply for permanent residency, which will impact our retention strategies and recruitment efforts,” he said. he declared. “The food industry — including Maple Leaf Foods — speaks regularly with the federal government to highlight the importance of this sector and its workers to the Canadian economy and the food supply chain.

Shorter permit periods could discourage potential applicants from seeking long-term employment in Canada, exacerbating existing labor issues in the pork industry, he adds.

Jim Mills, president of Select Shows, a family-owned amusement ride company, said the restrictions would further worsen the labor shortage in his industry.

“If they reduce the foreign workforce, it’s going to hurt us because we’ve had a lot of trouble finding work for foreigners,” Mills told The Sun in an interview. “Across entertainment companies, we are all facing a severe shortage of foreign labor, leading to operational difficulties for many companies.”

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, finding reliable domestic workers has become a major challenge, as many former employees no longer wish to work.

Like others in the industry, he added, Select Shows previously relied largely on Canadian workers, but has had to strategize in recent years and turned to the workforce foreign as a solution.

Finding foreign labor is a major obstacle, he said, adding that his company has joined a program to bring at least 10 workers from Mexico next year, following the lead of large companies in the sector that have long employed foreign workers from countries such as Jamaica and Mexico. South Africa.

Select Shows operates rides at fairs throughout Manitoba and Ontario.

He acknowledged the importance of the Canadian workforce, but said “the reality is that many young people” are no longer interested in the type of work his company offers. He remembered years gone by, when rural youth, often from farming families, took summer jobs with Select Shows.

Labor and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino agreed with Dahl that Manitoba’s needs differ significantly from those of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

“Implementing a single federal policy across Canada makes no sense,” she told The Sun on Thursday. “We vigorously advocated for Manitoba’s needs and made it clear to the federal minister that this approach would not work for us. This could slow down our growth. We know what we need – and it’s not that.

Marcelino reiterated that Manitoba would “continue to advocate” for a higher federal allocation for newcomers to meet current labor demands in the province.

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